


Fire Prince

by lollipopsicle



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen, Zuko (Avatar) Needs a Hug
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-13
Updated: 2020-09-13
Packaged: 2021-03-07 01:21:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,757
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26448451
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lollipopsicle/pseuds/lollipopsicle
Summary: "We can go whenever you're ready, nephew."That, in the end, is what prompts him. He doesn't want to be patronised and pitied, so he starts moving to show he is strong without it. His dao blades hang at his back, ready to be grabbed at a moment's notice.
Relationships: Iroh & Zuko (Avatar), Toph Beifong & Zuko
Comments: 11
Kudos: 225





	Fire Prince

**Author's Note:**

> i've been writing this on and off for a few months now, but i finally got it to a place where i could end it so here this is in all its glory

i. 

"I trust these men," his uncle tells him, but Zuko is barely listening to him. Ever since they've docked, his eye has started throbbing and burning underneath the bandages, and he just can't accept anything that anyone says. "They've proven their loyalty before, and I know that if we depart here, they will not follow us to report back to the Firelord." 

Neither of them can refer to him by relation anymore. He is simply 'The Firelord', and Zuko will keep it that way. 

Nevertheless, the Fire Lord has the entire Fire Nation under his control, and Zuko can't be sure that these men aren't in his pay. He just doesn't know how to do that. 

His uncle’s face softens as he takes a good look at his own - or, at least, what's left of it. His bandages aren't due to come off for at least another day. 

"Even if they report back to the Fire Lord," Iroh continues, his voice infuriatingly calm. "They cannot accuse us of any treason as we are not acting against the Fire Nation."

Zuko isn't convinced by that, but he lets his shoulders sag regardless, just to placate his uncle. His head hangs, staring at the ground, and Iroh places a gentle hand on his shoulder. 

"We can go whenever you're ready, nephew." 

That, in the end, is what prompts him. He doesn't want to be patronised and pitied, so he starts moving to show he is strong without it. His dao blades hang at his back, ready to be grabbed at a moment's notice.

Zuko does not say goodbye to the crew who has been with him for the past few weeks, but his uncle makes sure to give them advice and thank them on his behalf for everything they have done. He twiddles his thumbs as he waits and pointedly avoids making eye contact with anyone. 

They set off into the Earth Kingdom, with enough money to last a few weeks longer. 

ii. 

During their travels, they both gain a reputation. 

Iroh, the Earth Kingdom's new uncle. The children love him, the parents admire his patience, and the teenagers grudgingly welcome their affection for the tea loving man who spouts proverbs like they're normal sentences. Everyone loves him. 

Zuko, the Earth Kingdom's angsty cousin of sorts. The children take one look at his scarred left side, then at his golden right eye (the fire has made his left eye blind and the colour that was once in it is all but gone), and they shrug and pull him into their games. When they ask him to set fire to their sticks he refuses and tells them it isn't safe. 

The parents tut at his face, then notice his pale complexion and eyes that could only hint at Fire Nation royalty and their faces drop in horror as they piece it together. They try and offer him meals and a place to rest, but he and his uncle reject these offers every time. Instead, they offer their thanks when their children return home, flushed from exertion and happily babbling about the Fire Nation boy who didn't burn them. 

The teenagers take one look at him and either take pity on him, or ignore him. Those who take pity are usually also scarred by fire - those people remind him of the children who have been dead for a century, who have only just now been laid to rest - and try to find the warmth inside him that's been locked away by cynicism and anger. Sometimes, they nearly succeed, and that terrifies him. 

No-one seems to care that they're from the Fire Nation once they're three or four towns into the Earth Kingdom - they've heard the stories by then. The prince and his uncle, one burned and both running to somewhere safer. These people take it as another hint that the Fire Nation has gone too far - so far, that even royalty run away to find a better life. 

The people accept them, welcome them as their own, even. 

Where they love uncle, though, the people see his scar and pity him. 

Zuko tries to ignore the way his heart twists at how they act around him. He tries to lock it up with all the hurt that he's been feeling ever since the Agni Kai, but the first was never successful, so why would the second time be the same? 

He lets it fester, instead, and uses it as his drive when he practices with his swords until he is deadly, then practices more until his swords are a part of him and he doesn't have to think while he uses them. 

iii. 

He doesn't even try to access his firebending. He would be happier if his bending never returned to him. 

Iroh does convince him to try, though. The argument of flaming swords only just convinces him, and they only practise in the night, where the moon weakens their flame and makes it less lethal. Zuko can't handle it any other way. 

His uncle steps back the first few times he ignites a flame in his hands, far enough that Zuko knows he can't be burned, but close enough that they can still hear each other as they theorise and experiment with fire and blades. 

Zuko wishes that he didn't have to feel a vague sense of dread when his own flames skirt along the metal, licking the air and shimmering, even in the night. He wishes he could be proud of his accomplishment, but the fire is so tainted with pain and fear and rage that he stares at it until he extinguishes it, then tries to ignore his burning eyes until he falls into a fitful slumber. 

iv.

When it's been nearly a year since he's been home, Zuko's apprehension for his own fire has dwindled enough for him to practise in the sun. 

One day, he is doing just that. The sun is setting, and he is swiping with his left hand, flaming steel heating the air around him when a young girl runs up to him, all determined frown and wobbly legs. 

The flame dies as she stops in front of him, her eyes fixing him with a thoughtful stare. She bites her lip. 

"Are you the Fire Prince?" she asks, and in her voice he can hear curiosity, caution, nervousness, fear. She grips the folds of his outfit tightly in one hand. 

He takes a deep breath, and lets a smile form on his face. He hopes that he looks at least somewhat non-threatening as he crouches down so that he's eye level with the girl. "That's me," he says. Her eyes light up. 

"Can you help me?" she twists her hands together. She can't be much more than five years old, he thinks. When he nods, she goes into more detail. "I was playing today, and I went too far and I got lost on the way home. Can you help me get back?" 

He puts his swords back on his back and smiles again. "Of course I can." 

When they finally find her village, his heart is warm and his smile feels more natural than it ever has before. 

v. 

Zuko sees the Fire Nation army burning down houses for no reason other than for a laugh. 

Fire dances along his blades as he challenges them. 

The Fire Lord won't be happy to hear about this. 

vi. 

Zuko has been fourteen for a few months when he finally agrees to relearning basic firebending with his uncle. 

They practice forms in the dead of night, and meditate when the sun rises. 

He's never been able to quickly learn forms, and he can't tell if it's partly muscle memory, but he manages to work his way through them faster. 

Maybe it's because he's not scared of his uncle, and not overthinking the moves like he did as a child. The gentle pointers help too, because he understands where he's going wrong and he can correct himself accordingly. 

vii. 

Uncle tells him that he should draw inspiration from other types of bending, and Zuko doesn't understand.

Then, his uncle shows him how to redirect lightning and explains its origin, and Zuko thinks he gets the idea. 

viii. 

Zuko and his uncle have found a large city. He doesn't care much for the name of the place, but he does care for the citizens who strike conversation with him and his uncle. 

During one such conversation, a young child grabs his leg and they end up a way away from their respective families, drawing on the ground with the charred end of a stick. 

They draw flowers and houses, rainbows and shapes. They talk about various subjects, and Zuko nods seriously while the kid rants about horses. The kid is lapping up the attention, soaking in how seriously Zuko appears to be taking the conversation. He grins a toothy grin and grabs the stick, declaring that he is going to draw Zuko. 

Zuko tries not to look at the large scar on the side of his face. Surely, it was drawn larger than it actually is?

ix. 

Zuko bumps into a girl while he's dawdling through a marketplace. He holds out a hand to help her up, but she pushes herself up with a frown instead, completely ignoring it. 

"Are you okay?" he asks, taking a moment to look at her. She looks to be around nine or ten, and she's staring straight forward, not even indicating whether she heard him or not. 

"I'm fine," she says, and a small smile graces her features for just a moment. 

They both stand awkwardly for a moment. 

"You're not lost or anything, are you?" he asks cautiously, and her expression twists. She's still not looking at him. 

"No, I'm not lost," she scoffs. "Even if I was, I could find my own way out!" 

"Good to know," he says placatingly. "What are you doing here alone, then?" 

"Stuff," she mumbles. "What about you?" 

"Browsing," he answers. He rarely has a chance to relax, and when he does he enjoys shops and marketplaces, where he can see the fruits of other people's labour. 

She grins, and it's only a little bit off-putting. "Great. So you won't care if I ask you to eat with me?" 

"Not really," he raises an eyebrow. "Why?" 

"I'm a lonely, blind ten year old," she answers sharply, but her expression is curious and mischievous. "And I think we could both use a little company." 

x. 

Toph - that's her name - makes no indication that she is blind, except for her complete lack of eye contact and her milky eyes. Zuko is rather impressed by how confident she is in herself. 

They're sitting together at a table outside a small shop and making pleasant small talk. But he's Zuko for a reason, and one of those reasons is the weird ability to always somehow turn pleasant small talk into something else 

"You know, I haven't gotten your name yet," she comments nonchalantly, before taking another bite of her meal. "Considering I graced you with my name, I think it's only fair you reciprocate." 

"Lee," he says. Even if the entire Earth Kingdom is aware of their identity, it's easier and safer to pretend they're just travelers. Hints can be taken and hopefully, time will pass and they can live with a little less fear that their names are following them. 

"Lee," Toph echoes, as if testing how the name fits in her mouth. Then, she steeples her fingers, looking way too wise and knowing for a ten year old girl. "Lee's a nice name and all, but I gave you my real name so you should give me yours." 

He blinks. 

She shrugs. "I've learned to use my earthbending to see," she explains succinctly. "Using physical indications I can figure out when someone is lying, and you are apparently a really bad liar." 

He sighs and puts that knowledge in the back of his mind for later. "Zuko," he answers. It's her turn to be a little startled. 

"I can see why you'd go by a different name then, Fire Prince." She doesn't look like the person to hear those rumours. As if reading his thoughts, she continues. "I've heard the stories when I go out like this. You're a firebender, and you've got the entire Earth Kingdom panicking because you've never burned a single person with it. They say that children love you regardless of your scary scar." 

He twists his hands together nervously. He's never really liked the reputation that he and his uncle have gained. 

"That's true," he opts for instead. It's completely neutral, and means he doesn't have to go into all of it. 

"So far you're living up to those rumours," she comments off-handedly. "You've had several opportunities to burn me and yet not once have you taken it up." 

He blinks. "That's just common decency, not something I should have a reputation for." 

And she grins, in such a way that it feels as though she can see into his very soul. Which is, when he thinks about it, kind of ironic considering she can't even see. 

"I like you." Her grin only gets wider.

xi.

Zuko thinks about Toph a lot, when they leave the city soon after that conversation, headed to Ba Sing Se. Their conversation that day had spanned many topics, including one revolving around their families. 

While both of them had been very reluctant to explain their situations to each other, he was able to glean that Toph is ridiculously sheltered by her family and resents it, and she rebels by sneaking out and, apparently, finding strangers and taking them out to eat - amongst other things, at least. 

He spends his time at night staring up at the sky - or ceiling - and he imagines scenarios in which he has the courage and disloyalty to rebel against the Firelord. Some of them end with him locked up for life. Others end with him dead, or used as entertainment for Azula and her powerful firebending.

The ones that are left, after that, end well. 

There's not many of them, of course. There's maybe two or three, in which somehow he manages to reason with the Fire Lord and he actually listens and stops what he's doing. There's another where he gets through to Azula, and she helps him. 

They end well, but they're unlikely - not even unlikely, they're purely stupid and there is no chance that he would get close enough to pull them off. So he discounts them. 

He closes his eyes and tries to stop thinking about committing even worse treason. 

xii. 

When they arrive in Ba Sing Se, someone is kind enough to set him and his uncle up with jobs at his small tea shop. 

It's not the easiest job - the customers can be entitled and it's hard to brew a tea to Iroh's tastes - but he manages. And slowly, it becomes fulfilling - enough so that thoughts of the Avatar eventually subside and become no more than the occasional murmur in the back of his mind. 

He feels happier here - happier than he ever did with his father and his sister. He doesn't use it much, but the locals have all heard of who he is, and they don't mind it when he uses his fire bending to warm up their tea before giving it to them - even as they keep their eyes on his hands warily. 

(They always smile nervously and say something about how it's not him they're afraid of - it's the fire that the war has ruined for them. The instinct to distrust is not so easily broken by two rogue firebenders, they tell him, after taking the tea from him. 

Every time, Zuko hates the Fire Nation a little bit more.) 

xiii. 

When he's a few months past sixteen, the door opens in the middle of the day and four people walk in. There's two Water Tribe children, with features so similar that he's willing to bet they're siblings, there's a young kid with blue arrows dressed in clothes eerily familiar to those of the Air Nomads he'd seen all those years ago. 

And the fourth - she's familiar. Black hair, milky eyes and barefoot - she looks unseeingly in his direction and she grins. 

"Long time no see, Fire Prince," Toph says, her smile unusually sharp against her young features. "How do you and your uncle feel about joining our gang?" 

**Author's Note:**

> thank you for reading!


End file.
